What Motivates People to “Like” or “Unlike” Brands on Facebook
Have you ever noticed how seriously people take their ‘friendships’ on Facebook? Deleting, “unfriending,” or “unliking” someone (or some business) can be taken as a serious blow. And, as little as we’d like to admit it, being removed from someone’s Facebook world is a kind of big deal. So why do people do it? Simple… You annoy them.
“Unlike”
Baby pictures, overly pushy political or religious posts, and TMI (Too Much Information) status updates from friends are just screaming for a ‘delete,’ but as a business or brand on Facebook, what causes followers to flee? According to Lab42’s latest research, 73% of social media users “unliked” a brand because of the following reasons:
1) Brands posted too frequently
2) The consumer stopped liking the brand
3) A bad customer experience
But don’t let this discourage you, as social media users still find brand Facebook pages highly valuable. According to the study, 87% of people on Facebook “Like” brands, 82% of people think Facebook is a good place to interact with brands, 75% feel more connected to a brand on Facebook, and drum roll please… 50% of consumers think a brand’s Facebook page is more useful than a brand’s website!
It’s apparent that brand Facebook pages are valuable and important, but how do we ensure people don’t do the unthinkable and “unlike” our business? Simple… Don’t annoy them.
1) Reducing potential annoyance can be as simple as monitoring the frequency of your posts, and if need be, posting less often.
2) Consider using page post targeting on Facebook to target your posts to specific audiences. Posts can be sent based on gender, relationship status, education, age, location, language and more. The more targeted your posts, the more relevant (and less annoying) you’ll be.
3) Let users know that if they’d like to receive/not receive your posts, they can check/uncheck, “Get Notifications,” “Show in News Feed,” and/or “Add to Interests.” This can be done under the “Like” button found on each brand page. This will let users control how often they want to hear from you, without losing that beloved “Like.”
Interestingly, 22% percent of users were discouraged from liking a brand/service/product, etc. due to embarrassment – “Did you really just ‘Like’ Beano?” (sorry Beano). The top 3 categories social media users find most embarrassing include:
1) Adult novelty items
2) Diet/weight loss products
3) Health & wellness
If your company falls into this category, it’s OK, people obviously value you, they just may not want to admit it to their friends. And, there’s a simple fix for this. Users can hide their “Like” for your brand on Facebook. I know it may seem harsh, but this way, users still receive your posts, giveaways and more, without having to tell the world. Facebook lets you know how to do this on their site.
“Like”
So what motivates or encourages social media users to “Like” a brand on Facebook? According to the study, a consumer’s number one motivation for liking a brand on Facebook: promotions/discounts (psst… we have a tool for that).
For more in-depth information about how and why customers value, “Like” and “Unlike” brands on Facebook, check out the study depicted in this infographic from Lab42:
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As a brand it is somewhat difficult to find the right balance between posting too much and too little. This is especially true if you’re global brand catering to a wide audience.
Nice post!
Hilarious infographic on Facebook! Really useful for B2C companies. But do you have a vision of B2B connections on Facebook?
It depends on the social outlet. Platforms like Twitter can be a constant interaction, re-tweets, sharing something funny. On the other hand, Facebook we find should be limited to once a day at max. We’ve run tests where more posts will decrease our reach and our followers will ‘unlike us’
Just my two cents…
I find it depends on the company and how relevant the products are to me. Tech stuff, sure! Organic, gluten-free, home-made crafts? No so much.
I have to agree with my freind upstairs, there are no metrics available. My brand does not stand anywhere under the “socially unacceptable” lines, but there are problems. Post too much, its a problems, post less and still it is a problem.
The trouble is, what is posting “too much”? When I first started using Facebook for business it felt like posting more than a couple of times a week was pushy, then I saw a lot of data suggesting it was optimum to post at least once a day, but that’s bound to be too much for some people, even though I certainly see likes growing more quickly posting once a day, it can be a difficult figure to pin down. Interesting info though, surprised there aren’t more people feeling brands listen more on Facebook, it offers some of the best opportunities to engage with people directly so it seems to only hit 35% means a lot of people aren’t doing it very well.
Hi, could you please let me know how can I start a campaign to increase facebook followers. I would like to have something like “Become our friend on facebook and get a discount or something free …” but I’m not sure how I can track who became our facebook friend and redeem the special. Is there a way for doing and I appreciate your suggestions on how to increase facebook likes with promotions and how to track the for a small pizza place business with limited budget. Thanks